1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device unit detachably provided to an image forming apparatus such as copier, printer, facsimile or composite machines, an image forming apparatus, a management system configured to administer the image forming apparatus and operational statuses of the image forming apparatus, and a recycling system configured to recycle the device unit to use as a replacement product.
2. Discussion of the Background
Conventionally, image forming apparatuses such as a color copier are provided with a device unit (or process cartridge) detachable from the image forming apparatus.
As for such image forming apparatuses, when an existing device unit ends a lifetime or becomes malfunctioned, an operator such as a user and a service person performs a maintenance operation of replacing the existing device unit with a device unit of a new and unused state.
The device unit of a new and unused state includes a unit newly manufactured at a factory, and a recycle unit collected after using in the image forming apparatus and recycled in a recycle factory.
With an awareness of resource saving becoming more and more popular, manufacturing (i.e. recycle processing) of recycle units has been performed by manufacturers different from a manufacturer of image forming apparatuses.
Hereinafter, a device unit which is manufactured by a same manufacturer of an image forming apparatus is termed as “genuine product,” and such manufacturer is termed as a “genuine manufacturer.” Alternatively, a device unit which is manufactured by a manufacturer different from the above-mentioned “genuine manufacturer” is termed as a “non-genuine product,” and such a manufacturer is termed as “non-genuine manufacturer.” In addition, manufacturing a device unit means manufacturing a new product or recycling a used product.
A conventional image forming apparatus is detachably provided with a process cartridge having a nonvolatile memory, which communicates with a memory installed in the image forming apparatus. Specifically, writing timing is controlled to perform writing only when the writing is necessary to the nonvolatile memory and to prohibit writing to the nonvolatile memory in another time in order to prevent miss-writing to the nonvolatile memory of the process cartridge by noise signal.
Another conventional image forming apparatus is detachably provided with a process cartridge having an IC tag, which communicates with a control unit installed in the image forming apparatus, and using information stored in the IC tag when recycling. Specifically, when it is determined that an installed process cartridge is an unqualified one for normal operation based on the information obtained from the IC tag, an image forming condition of the image forming apparatus is downgraded from a normal level. With such a configuration, a user recognizes the process cartridge as an unqualified one, and thus, use of a pirate product is prevented. And to prevent an illegal recycle processing such as putting the IC tag used in a qualified process cartridge to an unqualified process cartridge, “Used” information is written to the IC tag when the process cartridge is installed in the image forming apparatus.
Another conventional image forming apparatus is detachably provided with a process cartridge having a memory, which communicates with a control unit installed in the image forming apparatus. Specifically, when it is determined that the installed process cartridge is not a genuine product based on the information obtained from the memory, the image forming apparatus stops its operation. And when the process cartridge is recycled, the process cartridge is verified by a host data base before clearing a memory, and a new information is written to the memory.
The above-mentioned conventional image forming apparatuses have experienced degradation of image quality of image output after replacing a process cartridge. Specifically, the degradation is caused as follows.
An image forming apparatus is manufactured by installing a process cartridge therein at a factory and a number of adjustments are made before shipping.
The adjustments include a precise adjustment to secure superior image quality. An image forming apparatus and a process cartridge may need precise adjustment on a unit-by-unit basis. That is, if a process cartridge installed in a fully adjusted image forming apparatus is replaced with another process cartridge, an exact same image quality may not be obtained for image output in many cases.
Such problems emerge when an operator performs a maintenance operation for an image forming apparatus. Specifically, when an existing process cartridge is replaced with a new process cartridge due to lifetime or malfunction of the existing process cartridge, the image forming apparatus may experience degradation of image quality for image output.
If the process cartridge for replacement is a non-genuine product, the above-mentioned problem may become a serious issue for a genuine manufacturer of the image forming apparatus because the non-genuine product is manufactured by a non-genuine manufacturer, and is not managed by the genuine manufacturer. Accordingly, a method for the above-described precise adjustment to a non-genuine product may not be known, and thus cannot be performed.
Similarly, if the process cartridge for replacement is a recycled product manufactured by a non-genuine manufacturer, the above-mentioned problem may become a serious issue for a genuine manufacturer.
The non-genuine product may be produced: by collecting a genuine product and performing recycle processing by a non-genuine manufacturer; by collecting a non-genuine product and performing recycle processing by a non-genuine manufacturer; or by collecting a non-genuine product and performing recycle processing by a genuine manufacturer, for example.
More particularly, the above-mentioned problem cannot be ignored for an image forming apparatus required to produce a high image quality.
Another conventional image forming apparatus uses a method of restricting an installment of all kinds of non-genuine process cartridges to an image forming apparatus to solve the problem.
However, superior image quality obtained by a genuine product may be maintained even using non-genuine products with an effort of a manufacturer manufacturing the non-genuine products.
Particularly, if a genuine product is collected, recycled and used for the image forming apparatus, superior image quality may be obtained with a higher probability even if a non-genuine manufacturer recycles the genuine product. Therefore, it is not appropriate to prohibit installing all kinds of non-genuine process cartridges to the image forming apparatus from a viewpoint of users because users are restricted from choosing a variety of products.
The above-mentioned problems also affect all kinds of devices that are detachable from the image forming apparatus and that have a quality difference on a unit-by-unit basis, such as a photo-sensitive member, a charging unit, a developing unit, a developer cartridge, a cleaning unit, an optical unit, a transfer unit, a sheet feed unit, and a fixing unit.
As for the conventional image forming apparatus, there is an uncertainty of quality assurance responsibility when a process cartridge produced by a recycle manufacturer, different from a genuine manufacturer, is used in the image forming apparatus.
In many cases, a process cartridge is formed of a variety of components having different lifetime and assembled together with adjustments. In some cases, precise adjustments, such as a development gap adjustment and a doctor gap adjustment, may be required to secure superior image quality. Methods of making such precise adjustments for the process cartridge are known by the genuine manufacturer.
When a process cartridge for replacement is a genuine product, which is controlled in quality by the genuine manufacturer, the above-mentioned problems of image quality rarely happen because the image forming apparatus and the process cartridge are designed and manufactured based on the genuine manufacturer's knowledge of minimizing variation of the above-mentioned image quality even if the process cartridge is replaced. This is also true for a process cartridge recycled by a genuine manufacturer.
Therefore, when a recycled process cartridge is a genuine product, which is controlled in quality by the genuine manufacturer, image forming apparatuses using such a recycled process cartridge rarely experience quality problems. Even if a quality problem happens, the responsibility of the quality assurance is clearly identified.
On the other hand, when a recycled process cartridge is a non-genuine product, which is recycled by a recycle manufacturer (i.e., non-genuine manufacturer) and out of the control of the genuine manufacturer, the image forming apparatus using such a recycled process cartridge experiences quality problems in many cases. In such situations, users may usually demand responsibility for quality assurance from the genuine manufacturer because they rarely know that the recycled process cartridge is produced by a non-genuine manufacturer.
In addition, a non-genuine manufacturer may use material that the genuine manufacturer refrains from using to comply with social and technical standards when recycling a process cartridge. In such a situation, a genuine manufacturer may be accused of non-compliance with those standards.
To avoid the above-mentioned responsibilities, conventional technologies restrict usage of non-genuine process cartridges (or containers) in the image forming apparatus.
However, some non-genuine products may maintain superior image quality similar to that obtained by a genuine product due to effort of the non-genuine product manufacturer. Thus, some users may choose a non-genuine product even if the quality of the non-genuine product is not at a same level as the genuine product, if a non-genuine product is less expensive than the genuine product.
Therefore, it is not appropriate to prohibit installing all kinds of non-genuine products for use in an image forming apparatus from a user's viewpoint because users are then restricted from choosing a variety of products.